XCOM: Enemy Unknown

[Acidpoptart]

Everyone, please keep posting the ways your soldiers die. It is not only entertaining, but educational

Originally Posted by SilentScreams

Pro tip: Don't take cover behind burning cars.

Out of curiosity, was the car already on fire or did they set it on fire and blow it up in a single turn? In other words, should a not-on-fire car be considered fine cover?

[Ink Asylum]

Well, to go into more detail about the late Urdnot Wrex:

We were investigating our first downed UFO, approaching carefully with plenty of Overwatch. We'd just taken down two Sectoids without a scratch, and were taking up positions outside one of the open doors into the craft. We'd spotted the crystal guy, and taken a shot at him, but didn't connect.

Wrex was up against the one of the walls just outside the entrance, which is regrettably an inside corner. This allowed the crystal guy to move up enough to remove his full cover advantage while still inside the craft. Even with a smoke grenade covering us Wrex took a 9-point critical hit and went down in one shot.

We quickly avenged him and easily cleaned up a few more Sectoids.

[Darkmatter]

So how are you enjoying the game? I tried the demo and saw potential but also found it a bit slow and... I dunno, something. lol Of course early missions have to be simple so I wanted to hear from people who are a little ways in now.

[Xydarc]

Originally Posted by Darkmatter

So how are you enjoying the game? I tried the demo and saw potential but also found it a bit slow and... I dunno, something. lol Of course early missions have to be simple so I wanted to hear from people who are a little ways in now.

Check here: http://www.colonyofgamers.com/cogfor...ad.php?t=27672

[Ink Asylum]

Originally Posted by Darkmatter

So how are you enjoying the game? I tried the demo and saw potential but also found it a bit slow and... I dunno, something. lol Of course early missions have to be simple so I wanted to hear from people who are a little ways in now.

I'm 4 missions and 2 hours in and I'm loving it. I wouldn't call it slow, but I would say it's deliberate in its pacing. You're given time to make your decisions and if you act without a lot of consideration things can actually move rather quickly.

[SilentScreams]

Originally Posted by Acidpoptart

Out of curiosity, was the car already on fire or did they set it on fire and blow it up in a single turn? In other words, should a not-on-fire car be considered fine cover?

They always blow up the turn after they've been set on fire. I think maybe grenades and rockets can blow them up in one, but don't quote me on that. I haven't used either all that much. You usually have a turn to get away. The problem is that it's easy to forget, or it is for me anyway.

I'm about 25 missions into my current game, here are a few random tips from my experience so far:

• Don't take on terror missions without at least laser weapons. You are not ready for Chrysalids until you have lasers.
• In said terror missions, stick together. Unless you get lucky, you can't take out a Chrsyalid in one turn with a single guy, and they usually don't need a second turn to ruin your day.
• One more for terror missions; don't rush. It'll get you killed. I know you might have a burning desire to dash around saving all the civilians, but don't. It's better to lose half the civvies and keep all your guys alive than to lose one of your guys. Saving half the civvies still gets you a good rating.
• Don't negelect base building. I made that mistake once and my research ended up slowing to a crawl and costing me the game. There are so many things to spend money on that you can't possibly get them all, so focus on a few important things (I'll let you decide what those are).
• A Support soldier with the 3x medipack upgrade is a literal life saver. Don't leave home without one if you can possibly avoid it.

I'll probably think of more, but those are the retrospective lessons I've learned so far.

[Ink Asylum]

Originally Posted by SilentScreams

They always blow up the turn after they've been set on fire. I think maybe grenades and rockets can blow them up in one, but don't quote me on that.

I saw a playthrough video this morning where a truck cab exploded the same action it was hit by a grenade.

[Dahzer the Cosmic Fool]

im given to think a car/truck has X hit points and at Y hit points starts on fire, so if the vehicle has been shot up a bit then a nade does the last remain hit points on the vehicle its going to blow right then and there

[Ink Asylum]

The vid I saw, the grenade was the only damage the truck took. No prior shots. Just something to keep in mind that vehicles are not the best coverage if you have anything else around.

[Vigil80]

Don't neglect your satellites. As far as I can tell, that's the only way of increasing your income, and you can't do jack without money. Also be aware that building a satellite takes 20 days, so don't wait until you need one to start one.

I'm learning this the hard way. I've kept all my soldiers alive, but I don't have enough equipment to go around.

As a matter of fact, I think I'm going to start over. I had chosen Africa at the start for the 30% funding increase, but that doesn't matter much if I don't have income in the first place.

If I understand the situation room view correctly, you can get another continent's bonus through complete satellite coverage. So the choice in the beginning isn't entirely an either-or proposition.

[National Kato]

What are the limitations on starting base countries? I only had U.S. and Europe available at the start of the game, with the other countries blacked out? Playing on Normal.

[Ink Asylum]

Originally Posted by National Kato

What are the limitations on starting base countries? I only had U.S. and Europe available at the start of the game, with the other countries blacked out? Playing on Normal.

Did you have the tutorial enabled? I think the tutorial limits a lot of your initial choices, as well as forcing a starter mission which results in 3 dead rookies. I may be wrong, though.

[National Kato]

Yes, I did play the tutorial through. I'll try my second playthrough without it.

[SilentScreams]

Damn it! Just lost my fully ranked up sniper. I was happily blasting a bunch of Mutons when a Berzerker came out of nowhere. I hadn't encountered one before, so I wasn't expecting it at all. And damn my luck there was a ladder right next to it that led to my snipers vantage point. Killed before I had a chance to save him and my medic was literally one tile away from being able to revive him. He bled out right in front of her.

Now I'm playing ring around the building with a Berzerker and 3 Mutons.

[Ink Asylum]

Oh geez. That sounds horrible. Normal or Classic difficulty?

Regarding healing, when you have the medikit selected, I'm guessing that the ring around a teammate is where your healer has to be standing in order to reach him with the spray. They don't need to be right next to him, correct?

[SilentScreams]

Correct. And if you have a stun gun equipped and mouse over an enemy, you get a blue ring that shows you how close you need to get to stun them.

I'm on classic difficulty. Ironman of course. I have my best squad out, so the other five guys should be able to handle the Berzerker...I just need to bait him into a kill zone, which is proving harder than you'd think.

[SilentScreams]

Got the bastard! It took a rocket launcher, a car (they do explode in one! ), a laser sniper rifle and two light plasma rifles, but he's down. Now it's just a case of mopping up.

[menage]

Tried the pc demo. I liked it but will pick it up when it drops. I'm not a huge fan of the type of gameplay but the theme and execution were cool.

[SilentScreams]

Damn, now my game keeps freezing. First problem I've had in nearly 12 hours of play, but it keeps on freezing up on the enemy turn. The game is still running, the enemy turn just doesn't end. I have to close the game with task manager and reload. I've managed to progress about 3 turns in 7 reloads.

Guess I'm starting again to find out if it's just that map or that battle.

[Slack3r78]

I accidentally 7am.

Originally Posted by Serapth

Is it really a 20GB install?

I want to install it on my portable, but it's got a 128GB SSD, and 20GB is a pretty freaking hefty chunk!

Roughly 13GB for me.